Craigslist, the online classified ad service, continues to draw the ire of woman’s and children’s rights advocates for its “Adult Services” section, which many argue is nothing more than an electronic prostitution solicitation business.

The controversial service still functions, despite a steady barrage of complaints and threatened legal action.  The latest round of criticism comes from the top legal officers of more than a dozen states, including Ohio’s Richard Cordray.  The various state Attorneys General have signed a sharply worded letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark imploring them to shut down the Adult Services section and stop accepting advertisements for sex.  The letter says in part:

“[O]nce an ad goes live on the site, it is a virtual certainty that someone will be victimized.
Yes, the perpetrators may eventually be apprehended and brought to justice, but the victim, assuming she survives, will carry the scars for life. No amount of after-the fact documentation will erase that enduring harm. Equally important, your much-touted “manual review” of Adult Services ads has failed to yield any discernible reduction in obvious solicitations.”

Craigslist executives have challenged the criticisms, claiming, for example, that no one has presented the service with documented law enforcement evidence implicating the advertisers in soliciting prostitution.